BOOK VI.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHEMISTRY.

A PHILOSOPHER was asked:--How much does smoke weigh? He answered: Subtract from the weight of the fuel the weight of the ashes, and thou hast the weight of the smoke. Thus he assumed as incontrovertible that, even in the fire, the Substance does not perish, only its Form undergoes a change. In like manner the proposition, _Nothing can come of Nothing_ was only another consequence of the Principle of Permanence, or rather of the Principle of the Enduring Existence of the same subject with different appearances.

Kant, _Kritik d. r. Vern._

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